Observations, musings & outright lies

2011-2012 TV Season: Fridays

The end of the work week isn’t a big TV night. Although in the era of Tivos and DVRs, how many people have appointment television anymore? Are there shows that you make it a point to be home for, so you can watch them when they first air?

Lost may have been the last show I did that for, but only because I didn’t want the post-episodes discussions at work to spoil something for me. And even then I usually started playing back the recording about 15-20 minutes in so I could skip through the commercials.

CBS – A Gifted Man – 8-9
Full Season, Possible ReturnI’m not sure what to make of A Gifted Man. Is it a Touched by an Angel/Highway to Heaven type show? Is it The Time Traveler’s Wife sort of? Is it The Ghost Whisperer? Or all of the above. After running into his ex-wife, Patrick Wilson discovers she died 2 weeks earlier. Is he sick? Crazy? Or is she real? And how will her presence affect his life? I think this could catch on. It looks sweet. Jonathan Demme is an executive producer on it. CBS tends to have luck with these types of shows. And since its competition is reality shows and Chuck, A Gifted Man fills a niche that may attract viewers on a Friday night.

NBC – Grimm – 9-10
Gone After 4 EpisodesIf you’ve been following the 2011-2012 TV season posts, you’ll realize this is the second fairy-tale themed show launching. Hollywood is weird like that. I think Once Upon a Time will last longer; it looks like a more original take and has more potential for longer runs. Grimm seems more like your run-of-the-mill cop procedural crossed with Buffy. Not surprising, since some of Buffy’s producers are behind this. The main character is descended from a line of “Grimms,” a mysterious group or family that can sense supernatural creatures and helps keep them in check. Conveniently our hero is a cop so when the Big Bad Wolf starts hunting girls in red hoodies (seriously), he manages to solve the case. Am I giving too much away? It was in the trailer. Blame NBC.

This wraps up the scheduled launches for the season. But the networks have already announced what’s on deck for replacements. Check back for details on those series.